Unified light heavyweight titleholder Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev did what he does best on Saturday night — score a knockout.

Kovalev, in the toughest fight of his professional career, dropped former world champion Jean Pascal for the first time in his career in the third round, and then stopped him with two clean right hands to the head in the eighth round as he retained his three 175-pound world title belts on Saturday night at the Bell Centre in Montreal, leaving Pascal’s hometown fans disappointed and his young daughter, Angel, in tears at ringside.

It was a fierce battle worthy of early fight of the year contention as they pounded each other with abandon, but it was Kovalev, coming through some rocky moments, who stopped Pascal.

“How I started I didn’t like,” Kovalev said. “But after the fourth round I got control of Jean and what you saw — I got him with a good right hand and he lost.”

Kovalev (27-0-1, 24 KOs), who was making his fifth title defense, was following up on his masterpiece in November, when he dropped and shut out ring legend Bernard Hopkins to take Hopkins’ two world title belts and unify them with his own.

Picture courtesy of RingTv

It was the first time Kovalev had gone past eight rounds, and he didn’t need to go beyond that point again with Pascal (29-3-1, 17 KOs), who viewed himself as Rocky coming into the fight because he was the underdog.

He was bitterly disappointed by what he thought was an unfair stoppage by referee Luis Pabon, and called for a rematch.

“It was a good fight for the fans, an action fight. I did my best,” Pascal said. “I don’t want to take anything away from Kovalev. He’s a great champion but that was a bulls— stoppage because I was still in the fight. That was a tough fight for both of us, and I don’t know why the referee just stopped the fight. It’s not hockey.

“I was in the fight from the first round. I’m sure that I gave him his toughest fight. We should do it again. We should have a rematch.”

Said Kovalev, “I’m ready for any fight. If my promoter [Kathy Duva of Main Events] says I need to fight Jean Pascal again, I am ready.” – Continue Reading

WATCH: Replay of the final sequence between Kovalev and Pascal that brought this battle to an end… http://t.co/DYcX51Tg3a